As we begin, I would ask you to turn with me in your Bible or electronic device to the first chapter of the Old Testament book of Nahum. In case you don't know where Nahum is, it's right between Micah and Habakkuk. It's located back there in what I've often referred to as the clean pages of your Bible. Someone once said happiness is sitting next to someone who knows where Nahum is. Nahum 1, we'll be looking at verses 2 to 7. My topic this morning is one which I feel very strongly about, one which I feel is very urgent for our day and our culture. That topic is the character of God. There are some tremendous truths regarding the nature and character of God in this passage, and I believe that one major area that's often neglected in teaching and preaching is a proper emphasis on God. If you go to any of the websites that sell Christian books, what you'll quickly notice is that most of the books focus on man. The books are primarily how-to books. How to discover your true identity, or how to be a spirit-filled Christian, how to be healed of your diseases, and how to get in touch with your feelings. Psychology-centered self-analysis kind of thing. My personal favorite is, How to Hear the Voice of God. which when I saw it, the first thought that came to my mind is, oh, that's easy. If you want to hear God speak, just open up your Bible and read it. And if you listen to many of the so-called pastors who are popular today, or read the things they write, you'll find that their sermons and articles are also very man-centered. I looked through a few of them, and the titles were things such as, Your Right Time is Coming, You're Going to Laugh Again, taking care of yourself. They're all about you, you, you. Very man-centered. So there's this constant, continual concentration on man. And you can find book upon book upon book published on subjects dealing with man's problems in this area, that area, this other area. And at the same time, if you look real hard, You will probably find that over the last few years, only about a half dozen books have been written about God, and you could probably burn four of them. Somehow we've gotten ourselves a little out of perspective. Somewhere along the line, we need to get the emphasis in the right place. But the emphasis today is very man-centered. And even though it's kind of a Christian man-centered, it is nevertheless man-centered. You can find books written on the Holy Spirit, but almost always from a charismatic name it and claim it perspective. Less often do we see one on the person of Christ, and they often focus on his humanity and neglect his divinity. But almost never do we see a book on God the Father. You can search both online and if you can find one, a local bookstore, and rarely will you find one of any current vintage. It seems that we have lost the real preaching and the real instruction on the character of God, and yet He is the basis of everything. Even when preaching on Jesus Christ, we must not constantly emphasize what He did, but who He was, God in flesh. In other words, the motive for everything is the identity of God. And all of the pastors here at Lakeside often speak about the glory of God because that is the real motive for everything. And I hope you understand that that's the way it should be. Dick Hillis was a famous missionary to China who suffered through great difficulties there in order to proclaim Christ. And someone once said to him, to go to China, To preach the gospel, you must really love the Chinese. And Mr. Hillis responded, no, I don't particularly love the Chinese, but I love God. You see, that's the real motive. The same thing is to be true in terms of all of our preaching and teaching. It must be God-centered. When we teach on the Holy Spirit, it must be in terms of His attributes as God, not some impersonal force that gives people mystical experiences. But sadly, in many churches today, particularly in the Word of Faith movement, the people isolate the Holy Spirit from the other two Persons of the Trinity. You see, any movement that isolates one member of the Godhead from the others is dangerous. When we focus only on the Holy Spirit without a solid foundation of biblical theology, we will inevitably end up in emotionalism. And if we focus only on Jesus without a solid foundation of sound theology, we will inevitably end up in humanism. What we really need is a triune God movement. Because if you want to identify with God, identify with Him in the total identity of who He is. For you will only understand Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and their ministries in terms of their identity as God. I'm sure you realize as well as I do that the ministry of the Holy Spirit was to point to whom? Jesus Christ. And the ministry of Jesus Christ was to point to whom? The Father. And therefore, the ultimate design of both was to drive us into an understanding of the identity, the character, and the personality of God. God is the ultimate vision. We are to concentrate on the person of God. So today I want us to do that. I want us to be preoccupied with the Triune God. Deuteronomy 6.12 says, Watch yourself that you do not forsake the Lord. And even in Christianity, it's very easy for us to get misdirected from the identity and character of an all-sovereign God. Who is God? That's a good question. You'll be amazed at the answers you'll get if you ask people that question. Who is God? Richard Dawkins, the famous atheist professor at Oxford University says, nobody. He will tell little children who kneel beside their beds in simple faith to pray, or the sick who call on divine power for healing, or the needy who cry out to the One who has promised to supply, or the lost soul that cries for God's saving grace, forget it. There's no one out there. And you'll ask Him where everything comes from. And he will tell you that the equation upon which the universe is built is that nobody times nothing equals everything. That just doesn't seem to satisfy the longing of man's heart. The deist comes along and says, oh yes, there's a cosmic force, but he couldn't care less about us. He put everything together, got it going, Now he's letting it run, but he's off doing something else. He's indifferent, emotionless. He's waiting for the whole thing to wind down. The fatalist says, God's a practical joker who played the biggest practical joke of all on us, namely life, existence without meaning. And he gives us the feeling that he ought to be there, but he's not. And others come along and say, no, God is a glorified, grandfather type, a heavenly Santa Claus, naive, senile, indulgent, syrupy, with no convictions, who pats everybody on the head and says, it's all right. The pantheist comes along and says, oh no, God is the essence of everything, which is the same as saying God is nothing. Some people believe God is the universal party pooper, a kind of cosmic killjoy who reigns on everybody's parade. He just gives us a bunch of rules that we have to obey or he'll zap us. And many, many people, in fact the majority of people, simply manufacture a God out of their own minds. The French philosopher Voltaire once said, God made man in his own image and man has returned the favor. But who is God? Who is God and what is He like? To begin with, four truths are abundantly clear in Scripture. By the way, don't worry that I haven't gotten to the text yet. This is still all introduction. The people who attend my Sunday school class already understand that. But anyway, there are four truths about who God is. Number one, God is one God. Deuteronomy 6.4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. If you want a theological term, you can call it monotheism. One God. We do not believe in a plurality of gods. We believe in one God. Second, God is in three persons. Matthew 28.19 says, We are to make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He is one God, yet manifested in three persons. You say, I don't understand that. You're not supposed to. You're only supposed to believe it because that's what God's Word teaches. The third fact about God revealed in Scripture is that God is a Spirit, John 4, 24. One God. Fourth, He's the Creator. In the beginning, God created. One God. Three persons. His essence is Spirit. He's the source of all things. And that's the basic identity of God. Now, as to specific attributes and specific characteristics, many of them are revealed in Scripture. But rather than extend ourselves endlessly to all of those various passages, let's spend our time in one passage, Nahum 1, verses 2 to 7. Now, Nahum is an interesting little book. You ought to read some of the Minor Prophets if you want to learn some fascinating things. We know very little about the prophet Nahum himself. other than the fact that he was an Elkishite, a place which no one is even certain where that was. But we do know that he had a very high view of God and His Word. And we will see that as we study this opening passage. Now here in the first chapter of Nahum, we have the introduction of a specific prophecy about a specific city, Nineveh. And God is bringing vengeance upon the Assyrians. particularly on the city of Nineveh for their treatment of Israel. This is about a hundred years after the city had repented at the preaching of Jonah. But the Assyrians had returned to their evil ways. So Nineveh is going to receive the judgment that had been postponed at the time of Jonah. God did not judge the city then, but it did not mean that he would ignore the sins of subsequent generations. Past blessing does not guarantee present peace. The people of each generation must seek and serve God for themselves. The Assyrians had already been responsible in great measure for dragging off the northern 10 tribes of Israel into captivity. And now they were coming in military force against Hezekiah and the southern kingdom of Judah. And God was in effect saying, this is the end. I will not tolerate this kind of activity any longer. So the Book of Nahum is a proclamation of doom and judgment against Nineveh for its persecution of God's people. And because God is always a God of His Word, that is precisely what happened to Nineveh. Even though the Assyrian Empire lasted for over 1400 years, It completely fell apart in a period of about 25 years until it was finally conquered by the Medes and Persians in 609 BC. Through a flood of various political and social events, internal rebellion and external attacks, the empire fell and the great city of Nineveh, at one time the most populous city in the world, was wiped off the face of the earth. So within this very specific prediction of coming judgment, we find a description of God's character in the first chapter. What is that? Why is that? Because God's right to judge is based on the identity of who He is. And so in introducing this most important judgment against Nineveh, the basis of the judgment is the character of God. And thus, that appears at the very beginning of the first chapter. And in rather spectacular terms, Nahum presents the majestic character of God. And he tells us three things about God's character, three major attributes of God. Those attributes are that He is a God of inflexible justice, irresistible power, and infinite mercy. inflexible justice, irresistible power, and infinite mercy. So then let's look at each one as they're described for us in the text. First of all, God is a God of inflexible justice. Now when we talk about justice, we're talking about a legal term that has to do, in this case, with divine government. Let me give you a little background information so you understand what I mean. We must understand this. God has the absolute right to rule and the absolute authority over His creatures because He is God. He makes the laws. He determines the standards. He judges in terms of the results. He created everything at His own pleasure. He didn't have to. Therefore, He has the total and perfect right to set the principles by which His creation must function. So before anything else, we must understand that God has the right to do what he wants to do. If a man rebels against God's divine government, if a man revolts against God's rule and violates it, he then falls immediately under the judgment of God. And thus it is evident that when a man reaches his highest destiny, it is when he stops resisting his creator and starts conforming to his will. This supreme achievement that man can attain is conformity to the will of God. If a man does not conform to the will of God, he incurs the inflexible justice of God. Now let's notice how this presents itself in verse 2, and we'll read through the first part of verse 3. A jealous and avenging God is the Lord. The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." Now those statements are tremendously powerful statements, and they show us a side of God that is vengeance and fury and wrath. First of all, notice that it says, God is jealous. What does it mean that God is jealous? It means that He resents the insults and the indignities of men who rebel against Him. Why? Because He is God. God is totally different from us. He alone creates, sustains, and controls everything that exists. So we dare not project on him human characteristics unless the Bible gives us license to do so. So when Nahum wrote that God is jealous and avenges himself, he was speaking of the perfect way that God acts and he was not describing the rash behavior of humanity. In speaking of God as jealous, Nahum is not saying that God is capricious. That is, He does not have any unreasonable change of mind or character. He is not malicious in that He does not act spitefully. And He is not vicious and cruel, but He is jealous for His own name and honor. You may ask, are you saying that God is self-centered? Absolutely. God is God and he has the right to be self-centered because he is God. He is the very essence of existence in himself and God resents the indignities of those who rebel against him because all glory belongs to him and therefore he demands glory from all of his creatures and any creature in his universe that refuses to give him glory he places apart from his presence. Those who violate his laws, those who ridicule his word, are dismissed from his presence forever. He's jealous. He's jealous for his own honor. He's jealous for his own praise, and he demands it from every creature. Let me show you this from Scripture. Over in Exodus 20, verses 3 to 5, God says, you shall have no other gods before me. God doesn't tolerate that. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them. Why not? For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. God is a jealous God. We're in the age of individual responsibility now, but that does not change the fact of God's jealousy. God is jealous for His own glory and tolerates glory given to no other. Listen to Exodus 34 14. For you shall not worship any other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. He even takes the name jealous to identify Himself intrinsically with jealousy. God does not tolerate rebellion against giving Him glory. In Deuteronomy 4.24, it says, for the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. In Ezekiel 39.25, God says, I will be jealous for my holy name. And to violate that, to worship a false god or to rebel against God makes him jealous. Anything but true worship to the true God incites the jealousy of God. Turn with me, if you would, to Ezekiel 38. Let's read there, beginning in verse 18, and I want you to see just how angry God becomes at false worship. Ezekiel 38, beginning at verse 18, It says, it will come about on that day when God comes against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God, that my fury will mount up in my anger, in my zeal and in my blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at my presence. The mountains also will be thrown down. The steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground. I will call for a sword against him on all my mountains, declares the Lord God. Every man's sword will be against his brother. With pestilence and with blood, I will enter into judgment with him, and I will reign on him and on his troops and on the many peoples who are with him. A torrential rain with hailstorms, fire, and brimstone. I will magnify myself, sanctify myself, and make myself known in the sight of many nations, and they will know that I am the Lord. God tolerates no rivals and no rebels. We see the same thing portrayed of Jesus Christ in the words of Jude 14 and 15 where it says, Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Again, we see that God tolerates no rivals and no rebels. So God is jealous for His glory. God is also jealous for His love. Jealousy really only belongs to those who love. A husband and a wife, jealousy is possible. Girlfriend and boyfriend, jealousy is possible. Jealousy fits into a love relationship, and so it does with God. God is jealous because He loves. You remember Hosea the prophet? God gave him a wonderful illustration of this to live in his own life. God told him to marry a woman who turned out to be a prostitute. And then God said, this is a graphic illustration of what Israel has done to me. Israel had been an unfaithful wife and God was jealous over Israel because Israel was his love. And God's heart was grieved and broken. God gets jealous when those He loves are stolen from Him by someone else. And so God's jealousy is not only the jealousy of honor, but it is also the jealousy of love. When God sets His affections upon something and something robs Him of that, He is jealous. But there's one more area in which God's jealousy is evident, and it is this. The supreme jealousy of God is aroused against those who mistreat His Son. Above all else, God loves His Son. And to mistreat His Son brings down the wrath of God. Galatians 1.18 says, But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. In other words, he is to be damned to hell. And he repeats that statement in verse nine. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you receive, let him be accursed. Second Thessalonians 1, 7-9 says, And the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. God is jealous over his Son. And one of the most startling and terrifying verses in all the Bibles found in 1 Corinthians 16, 22, if anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. God is jealous for his own honor. He is jealous for those he loves. He is jealous for his son. And for an individual to reject Jesus Christ is to bring upon himself the damnation of God, because God is a jealous God. Now returning to Nahum, look at verse 2. A jealous and avenging God is the Lord. The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries and He reserves wrath for His enemies. Three times in that verse He talks about vengeance. He repeats Himself over and over and the repetition is solemn, it is fearful, it is serious. In Deuteronomy 32, 35, God says, Vengeance is mine. In Romans 12, 19, He says, Vengeance is mine. In Hebrews 10, 30, He says, Vengeance is mine. Three times in Scripture that statement is made. You do not violate the glory and honor of God. You do not violate those He loves. And you do not violate His Son and get away from His wrath. because in verse three of our text, he simply says, the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. If you listen to most of the liberal theology of our culture today, you get the idea that God is some kind of namby-pamby, tolerant, senile, old grandfather type. That's not the case. God does not tolerate one rebel to exist in his presence. The Bible tells us in Romans 118 that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. All of it. He reckons with men who rebel. Nahum says he will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserves wrath for his enemies because he is just, he must do so. You see, divine punishment is not retribution and it's not retaliation. Sin will receive its just punishment and the unrepentant sinner will not be able to escape the sentence that God delivers. God's jealousy has not only the warmth of his love, but also the fire of his wrath. Look at the beginning of verse three. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Have you ever heard someone scoff? about God and say something like that. Well, God doesn't do that kind of thing anymore. That's all Old Testament stuff. You don't see any big judgments from him taking place. Some of you may be sitting there right now thinking, Bruce, what's all this hellfire and damnation stuff you're talking about? Have you seen the condition of our world and our culture lately? If God's up there and he's so powerful, why doesn't he do something? Well, that's the same thing men have been saying since the Apostle Peter wrote 2 Peter. Look at 2 Peter chapter 2. In verse 9, Peter specifically addresses that kind of thinking. He says, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. In other words, God knows what he's doing. And then over a page in chapter 3 verses 3 and 4, Here comes the scoffers. Know this, first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, saying, where is the promise of his coming? They're saying, the only thing you people ever talk about is Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming, and God's gonna invade the world with vengeance. Well, where is he? And here's their argument. For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." In other words, nothing's ever changed. And in verses 5 and 6, he says that they're willfully ignorant because they don't remember the flood. And then he says this in verse 9, The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up." Now listen carefully. Don't ever confuse God's patience with weakness. What God does not do is not because He cannot, It's because he is patient, not wishing that any should perish. God stays his anger and mercy. Don't ever confuse mercy with impotence. God is not impotent. Now turn back and look at Nahum and look at the last part of verse three. It says, the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. No one who violates God's law and remains in that situation gets off the hook. Justice is inflexible and inevitable for those who violate God's law. Don't ever believe for a moment that because God doesn't act, it means that He can't act. That's just His mercy. You say, wow, God is really hard-nosed. Is that just? Be careful. Don't question God's justice, because to question God's justice is an affront to His glory. He says He is just, and that settles it. So for the rebel, God is a God of inflexible justice. You say, well, how can anyone avoid that? Listen to this. This ought to encourage your heart. Romans 8, 1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So simple. If you've taken refuge in Jesus Christ, you will never face the judgment of God. Never. Because Jesus Christ is God's standard. If you've been obedient to that standard, you'll never know judgment. Second, God is not only a God of inflexible justice, He's a God of irresistible power. Look at the middle of verse 3. These are fantastic statements. This is a verbal display of majesty. In whirlwind and storm is His way, in clouds are the dust beneath His feet. We've just entered the hurricane season here in Florida. So remember this, whenever there's a whirlwind, wherever there's a storm, God controls it. God makes his way in that storm. He accomplishes his purpose by it. Back in the Old Testament, God appeared at times in the wind and the whirlwind. God moves through the atmospheric heavens that surround us. He is a God of irresistible power, and the first witness to testify to that is the atmosphere. Psalm 19.1 says, The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. The clouds, the storms, the hurricanes, the tornadoes, they're God's to control. God is a God of irresistible power, and it's evident in the skies. Men and women should be able to look at the heavens and know God, shouldn't they? Do you know that God has such power over the heavens that because men have refused to look at the heavens and recognize Him, the heavens are going to collapse? God is going to judge men for their failure to see Him in the universe, in the heavens, and the heavens are going to fall apart. John wrote about it in Revelation 6. It'll take place during the tribulation. And John says, I looked when he broke the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair and the whole moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree cast its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it's rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. A couple of chapters later in Revelation 8, 12, it says, The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened, and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way. In Revelation 16, verses 8 and 9, it says, The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun. It was given to it to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. And they did not repent, so as to give Him glory. God controls the heavens. And one day mankind is going to see the collapse of the heavens. We see it now as we read His prophetic word. But not only do the heavens speak of His irresistible power, there's also the testimony of the waters. Look at verse 4 in Nahum 1. It says, He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dries up all the rivers. He did that to the Red Sea when the Israelites left Egypt, and again to the Jordan River when they crossed into the Promised Land. And Jesus graphically illustrated God's power over the waters in Mark 4 when He stood up and told the sea to calm down, and it did. And the disciples were amazed and said, even the winds and the waves obey His voice. And the book of Revelation says He's going to demonstrate His powers over the water again someday. Read through Revelation 8 sometimes. It says God's going to wipe out the water. One third of it will be turned to blood. Another third will be made so bitter and acidic that people will die from drinking it. So we see the testimony of the heavens and the testimony of the waters. Thirdly, the testimony of the earth. Look at the end of verse 4. Bashan and Carmel wither. The blossoms of Lebanon wither. Those are the eastern, western, and northern boundaries of Israel. And they are the most fertile areas. But if God wants to, He can destroy the fertility of the luscious area. He has total control over the earth. You remember back in Genesis 1, how the earth was designed for man by God? And then when Adam sinned, what happened? The earth was cursed. And we know it will be the same way when God judges us again in the future. Revelation 16, 20. It says in every island fled away and the mountains were not found. Revelation 8, 7 it says there will be hail and fire mixed with blood thrown into the earth and one third of the trees and all of the green grass will be burned up. That's a description of the demise and destruction of the earth. God can cause the flower to fade and the grass to wither and the shape of the earth to change at will. In fact, in verse five of our text, it says, mountains quake because of him and the hills dissolve. Indeed, the earth is upheaved by his presence, the world and all the inhabitants in it. So his power is seen in the earth. He runs this world and he'll shake it anytime he desires. Bible tells us in 2 Peter 3, 7, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of destruction and judgment of ungodly men. But Peter says in verse 10, the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up. He controls the earth. And if he wants them to dissolve, they will. And one day everything will melt with a fervent heat. We're talking about the destruction of the globe. His power is irresistible. In verse 6, Nahum asks a couple of rhetorical questions. Who can stand before His indignation? What's the answer? No one. Who can endure the burning of His anger? What's the answer? No one. His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by Him. When God begins to move, no one can resist Him. This is judgment. His power is absolutely irresistible. Any man who thinks that he can resist the power of God is a fool. It can't be done. No one can stand against this kind of inflexible justice and this kind of irresistible power. No wonder the writer to the Hebrews warned us so strongly in Hebrews 12. Turn with me there for a moment, please, and let's read what he says. Hebrews 12, verses 25 to 29. He writes, see to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven? And his voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised saying, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven. This expression yet once more denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." No wonder he said back in chapter 10, it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. God is a God of irresistible power. There's no hope of escape from that power apart from Christ. And so Nahum says, first of all, God is a God of inflexible justice. Second, God is a God of irresistible power. And third, and this is so wonderful, this is the breath of hope that we've been waiting for. God is a God of infinite mercy. Verse seven. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him." Isn't that refreshing? All the terrifying explanation of God's justice and power, and after all that we find He's good and merciful. Turn over to Malachi 3 for a moment. In Malachi's prophecy, As the prophecy was being given, the people were shaking and quivering in their sandals, to put it mildly. God was raining down his judgment and says in verse 16, then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. They're looking around, they're saying to one another, I wonder if we're going to get it too. But Malachi says, And the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem his name." Isn't that good? He says, I've got a book, and I know who it is that belongs to me. Then over in chapter 4, verses 1 and 2, For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff, And the day that is coming will set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But now watch verse 2. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You see, God always remembers the remnant, the faithful. And so for those of us who are faithful to Jesus Christ, who are not rebels from God, but who by faith in Christ have come into a living relationship with God. We read these words, the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him. Do you fear God? Not in the sense of reverential awe, but in the sense of being afraid of Him? You don't need to be. Why not? Because if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're not in rebellion against Him. He's good. But you know something, to say that our Lord is good is hard to swallow for a lot of people. A lot of people think that God must be some kind of demagogue, a cruel individual. They look around the world and say, look at the disease, look at the death, look at the poverty, look at the crime, look at the wars, look at all the horror in this world. If God is good, how do you explain this? And so we've got to go to the Word of God and see that God is good. And we see it in many places. The psalmist said, the loving kindness of God endures all day long. In Lamentations, Jeremiah the prophet said, the Lord is good to them who wait for him, to the person who seeks him. And his goodness is not only revealed in his word, it's revealed in Jesus Christ, who said, I am the good shepherd. who said to the rich young ruler, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. In other words, are you acknowledging that I'm God? And not only is His goodness revealed in His Word and by Christ, but His goodness is also revealed in His works. The Bible says He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Psalm 33 says, the earth is full of the loving kindness of the Lord. Did you ever think about the fact that if He had wanted to, God, could have made everything gray. I mean, we see gray, guys occasionally. But what if the grass was gray, and the flowers were gray, and all the trees were gray? God could have done that, but He didn't. Why color? Because there's joy in the variety of color. Color, rain, the beauty of the earth, the glory of the starry sky, He's good to all. And especially to those who love Him. Romans 8.28, says, for all things work together for good to them who, what, love God and are called according to His purpose. The goodness of God is not only revealed in these areas, it's experienced by believers. Solomon said this, not one word has failed of all his good promises. Jacob said, God has been my shepherd all my life to this day. God's good. We who know and love Him experience His goodness. Secondly, God is a stronghold in trouble. He's a refuge. Deuteronomy 33, 27 says, the eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. The Lord is our security in the midst of material, physical, and mental affliction. Philippians 4, 19 says, and my God shall supply, what? All your needs. He's a refuge. And lastly, verse seven of our texts in Nahum, he says, and he knows those who take refuge in him. You say, does that mean that the only people he knows are the ones who trust him? No, it means he loves and cares for them in an intimate way. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them. And what he meant was I have an intimate relationship with them. At the final judgment, when Jesus says, depart from me, I never knew you. Does that mean he doesn't know who they are? No, it means he doesn't have an intimate love relationship with them. And here in Nahum, it says he knows those who take refuge in him. Do you know that God loves you? Remember the Apostle John who titled himself the one who Jesus loved? He loves those who trust in him. You don't have to be afraid of God. You don't have to ever have any fear at all in your mind or heart about God, because you can know with certainty that God loves you. Because perfect love casts out fear. God is a God of mercy. God is a God of love. One of my favorite passages in all of scripture is found one page back from our text in the book of Micah, at the end of Micah, Micah 7, verses 18 and 19. Listen to these words. Who is a God like you? who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Is that mercy? Sure is. You say, I'd like to experience that mercy. Where is that mercy available? It's available in Jesus Christ. That's exactly where it's available. Those who love Jesus Christ will never be accursed because all of God's standards, listen carefully, all of God's standards are obeyed by one act, faith in the perfect finished work of Jesus Christ. Don't try to fit God into your mold. Meet His standards. And in your frailty and in your sin, you have only one way to meet Him, by faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord. Don't let God say, I am against you. Don't hear the voice of the Savior and say, depart from me, I never knew you. But instead, hear Him say, well done, good and faithful slave, enter into the joy of your Master. If any man is in Christ, he's not only a new creation, he is freed from condemnation. No judgment ever. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you that you know those who trust in you. We praise you that in your infinite wisdom, you designed the perfect means by which fallen sinful man could be restored to an intimate relationship with you. Thank you that though you are a God of inflexible justice and irresistible power, you're also a God of infinite mercy who willingly gave your only son through whom we experience that mercy. And because of his death, we'll never experience condemnation or judgment. Instead of fear, we find refuge and a stronghold in days of trouble. But Lord, we're not so naive as to think that everyone in this room, or everyone watching or listening today, knows your Son as their personal Lord and Savior. And unless they repent of their sin and turn to Him in saving faith, All they will ever know of you is your inflexible justice as they're condemned to an eternal hell someday. So we pray that by your irresistible power, the Spirit of God would draw them to Jesus Christ, that they would experience your infinite mercy being poured out on them as they place their trust in Him alone for their salvation and will then know your infinite love for them. Bless us as we all go our separate ways today. May we live our lives in such a way as to be pleasing to You in all that we think, say, and do. And it is in the precious name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray. Amen.